PeaceWalker Blog

My last post, Embrace the Suck I told you that I would talk about priorities, so here you go! Fellow RGI colleague  Joe Marine tells this wonderful tie-in story called the Jar of Life. It's about priorities. It's an oldie but a goodie. You can find it here in his book: Tie-Ins for Life . The Jar of Life When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember a jar, golf balls, marbles, sand and two cups of coffee. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and fills it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of marbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The marbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed...

People often ask, "What do you want out of life?" The responses you get are pretty standard. "To have a good job." "To have a fulfilling career." "To have that special someone who I love and loves me."  "To have a  happy family." "To have good friends." "To be healthy." "To be thin." "To be physically fit." "To look good." "To be financially secure." "To feel safe." "To be happy."  Those are all good things, but that's the easy question. Here's the real question: What are you willing to sacrifice to get those things? What pain are you willing to endure to achieve and maintain the things in your life that you say you want? Everything costs you something, be it time, money or attention, so what suck are you willing to embrace to get what you want? Have you every seen someone play "air guitar" to their favorite rock so...

A beautiful fall day. 70 degrees, sunny with a breeze. My mind is full yet restless on this Autumn morning. It won't be long before the snow will begin to fly. Winter's fine through January anyway. Luckily this year I'm off on a Caribbean sailing trip in February to break up the cold. Shortly after, Spring will arrive, followed by Summer. Then of course Autumn will come once again repeating the cycle. Life and training is like this as well. There are seasons. The things we practice, the lives we live, the people we become, the generations we represent all change, yet if you look, there are noticeable patterns and cycles.  If we are open to it we can broaden and deepen our experience with each new cycle, but to do this we must be in this moment while we connect the dots from our previous experiences. If it's fall, but we act as if it is still summer, not only will we miss the beauty of the season we are in, we may do inappropriate and ineffective things. Wearin...

In You Have to Steal It (Part 1) I talked about when you want to be successful at something you'll have to steal it. Meaning  that it can't be given, you have to want it. You can read that post here if you need to get up to speed! =) Today, I want to discuss learning, applying and making it your own. After you learn something, you have to learn to connect the dots. You have to take whatever it is, embrace it, understand it, make it uniquely your own and apply it. No one can do that for you, even if they wanted to, they can't, that's your responsibility. There is a Japanese concept called Shuhari. Aikido Aikido master Endō Seishirō explained this concept in the following way: "It is known that, when we learn or train in something, we pass through the stages of shu, ha, and ri. These stages are explained as follows. In shu, we repeat the forms and discipline ourselves so that we understand and absorb the correct forms that have been successful...